John (Program #39) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (3)

Those who refuse Christ and who stay in Adam by so doing will remain one with Satan, and as a result will participate in the judgment reserved for God’s enemy.

In this chapter (John 15), the Lord speaks plainly, directly, and profoundly concerning the divine organism. And, He says, “I am the true vine, you are the branches.” So, here we have a corporate entity. The vine with its branches composed of Christ as the embodiment and manifestation of the triune God. And, all those who have believed into Christ by receiving Him into them. The Lord calls this the true vine, the real vine. What we have in this marvelous picture is God the Father embodied in Christ who is the stock of the vine. And, all the believers who have been added to Christ, to become parts of Christ, just as the branches of the vine are parts of the vine to be an organism. So, now we have on this earth the living, divine organism of Christ and His believers, the vine and the branches.

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Leviticus (Program #37) – The Sabbath Year and the Jubilee (1)

The gospel of Luke chapter 4 has a wonderful and often quoted passage: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel of the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed/ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.” The Lord Jesus was actually quoting from Isaiah in this passage but the reference to the year of jubilee is found in Leviticus chapter 25. This is perhaps the best known chapter in this entire book and the spiritual significance of it will become, not just a good Bible teaching, but become the source of our shouting for joy, our jubilee!

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Leviticus (Program #36) – The Festivals (2)

The day of Pentecost is recorded in the book of Acts, is looked upon by many Christians as being a landmark event in the history of Christianity.  And rightly so, as it is associated with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  But Pentecost also coincide with the Jewish festival known as the Feast of Weeks as initiated in the book of Leviticus.  From the light of the Old Testament types and pictures we have been getting in the book of Leviticus, it bears even more significance for us today.  We want to look at Pentecost on today’s program from a very new and a very fresh perspective.

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John (Program #38) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (2)

When He speaks to us, we have to keep it. When His word abides in us, then right away, we are abiding in His love. So, just by saying Amen to His speaking, love will fill us, and we will find the prevailing way to love the Lord Jesus and abide in His love.

The very striking point in John 15 to me is the illustration of the vine and the branches. There’s no other plant that could adequately illustrate the life flow that exists between the Lord and His believers. The Lord said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Could any other illustration make it more clear? Then, what God is producing is an organism, not an organization. The “I am” here is Christ when He said, “I am the vine.” And, the “you are” is that part of the vine known as branches. Christ, the Son, is the very center of God’s economy, and He’s also the embodiment of all the riches of the Father.

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John (Program #37) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (1)

God intends to propagate and multiply, not by relying on great gospel campaigns, but rather by flowing His life in Christ into all the branches so that all the branches will bear fruit.

Chapter 14 of John has as its focus, the dispensing of the Triune God into the believers of Christ for the producing of God’s abode. In order to touch the heart of chapter 14, we need to drop the traditional concept that the Father’s house with the many abodes denotes Heaven. Simply put the Father’s house denotes the Father’s house, which is His habitation, His dwelling place, elsewhere called quite distinctly the Church of the living God or the temple of God. So, the emphasis in chapter 14 is how Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of reality comes into the believers, dwells in them, and enables them to dwell in God. And the result of this mutual indwelling is the producing of God’s dwelling place.

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Leviticus (Program #35) – The Festivals (1)

Festivals, feasts and holidays are special time for all humans.  They are always associated with rest and enjoyment and they are only satisfying when enjoyed with others.  In other words they are mean to be corporate events.  The Bibles records 7 annual festivals or feasts that were very much part of the Old Testament economy and these are found in the book of Leviticus chapter 23.  God’s people eagerly anticipated all of them.  Though we as God’s New Testament people are not bonded to celebrate or hold these festivals outwardly today, they each have tremendous insight and spiritual application to every child of God.  Stay with us today, as we look at the feasts in Leviticus 23 in our life study of the Bible program.

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John (Program #36) – The Dispensing of the Triune God for the Producing of His Abode (4)

This is so critical for our experience of Christ to continually say, “Lord Jesus, I love you.” And according to these verses, when you tell the Lord that you love Him, He says “I will love you also, and My Father will love you. I will manifest myself to you. And, not only that, the Father and I will come to you and make an abode with you.”

Thus far, we’ve seen that John 14 is a very mysterious chapter. In verse 2, the Lord says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes”, and this verse has been misinterpreted and misunderstood by many people. What we have seen from the Holy Bible is that the Father’s house is the Church. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us the Church is the house of the living God. And, in the Church, which is the Father’s house, are many abodes. These many abodes are the many members of the Church as the body of Christ, who are the many dwelling places of Christ. Each believer in Christ, as a member of His body, which is the Church as the Father’s house, is a dwelling place to Christ…

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Leviticus (Program #34) – The Holy Living of the Holy People — Putting Off the Old Life and Putting On the New

A wonderful passage familiar to many Christians in the New Testament is found in Ephesians 4  “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind. That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit.  And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.”  This marvelous passage in the new testament inspires us all but have you ever thought the Old Testament passage that parallels this one. Well, in fact there is such a passage and it is found surprisingly in the book of Leviticus.  We want to explore these two parallel passages one from the Old Testament and one from the New today.

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John (Program #35) – The Dispensing of the Triune God for the Producing of His Abode (3)

People think that the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a big mansion for us in heaven. As though God had two dwelling places, or two buildings, God only has one building. Not one on heaven and one on earth. He has one building.

This chapter (John 14) is very mysterious I admit, and it’s very misunderstood. But, this chapter is really the last message that the Lord gave to His disciples. And, here He’s talking about going away. Many people misunderstand this. But, He’s just talking here about His going to the cross. And, when He goes to the cross, He is also promising that He will come again. His coming again of course is after His resurrection. He will come back to them. And when He comes back to them, He will be the Spirit because in His resurrection He becomes the life giving Spirit.

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Leviticus (Program #33) – The Holiness in Enjoying the Holy Things

Leviticus 24 is a chapter talking about the lampstand and the showbread table within the tabernacle.  It goes into great detail regarding how the priests were to attend to the care and arrangement of these two important items in the tabernacle. In order to serve God as priests, we also need to take care of two things; the divine light and the divine food.  How the levitical priests conducted themselves show us great deal about how we can have a deeper and more meaningful experience of Christ in this age.

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